Instagram adds ability to reply with photos, videos to Stories

Instagram users can now reply to Stories with a photo or video, including Boomerang. The Facebook-owned company has added a new camera button, which appears while users are watching a story. Users can tap on the button to reply with a photo or a video.

Instagram users can now reply to Stories with a photo or video, including a Boomerang. The Facebook-owned company has added a new camera button, which appears while users are watching a story. Users can tap on the button to reply with a photo or a video. Tools in the camera such as face filters, stickers and Rewind can be used as well. Replies will have a sticker of the story that people can move around and resize.

When Instagram users reply with a photo or a video to a Story, their friends will see the same in their inbox. Users can tap on the reply option to view the media. Users will also see a sticker of the original story that is visible to them. “As with disappearing photos and videos in Direct, your friends will know when you’ve taken a screenshot or replayed a reply,” read Instagram blog post. The updates are available as a part of Instagram version 10.28 and above for iOS in the Apple App Store and for Android in Google Play.

Instagram Direct, which was introduced in April, now has over 375 million monthly active users. The photo-sharing platform rolled out a slew of features for Direct recently. The ability to share external web links with friends via Direct, and send photos in landscape and portrait orientations have been added as well.

Stories remain one of the most popular features of Instagram. With over 200 million daily users, Stories on Instagram is bigger than Snapchat itself. The messaging app has over 161 million daily active users. Though Instagram Stories was essentially a rip-off of Snapchat’s feature with the same name, it has clearly generated a lot more users on Instagram, thanks to a wider reach.

Meanwhile, a new Instagram bug is causing accounts of some users to appear deleted and preventing them from logging in as well. The company says it is aware of the issue, and is working to resolve it. “Your account has been disabled for violating our terms. Learn how you may be able to restore your account,” read the error message.